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Friday, 4 November 2011

Slick Silver Jewellery

Following my appearance on Kirstie's Handmade Britain last
Wednesday, I've been approached by many people wanting to know more
about papercrafting or how to get started or more about what I do as a
designer/maker. Each email I have answered as fully as possibly, in the
hope that they will go on to enjoy their experience of crafting with
paper.

Recently I've had a small spurt of enquiries from blogs and magazines, one of which was Val Williams aka
@SlickSilverJ from twitter. She suggested a blog collaboration. Now, I
don't know about you, but I always see a collaboration as working
together. Val sending questions and me sending answers seemed a bit
lobsided, so, we've ended up with a double wammy. She's interview me
at Slick Silver Jewellery and here's my interview with her. She's also sent me some images of her work so you can see her work in all its' loveliness.

Here goes....

How long have you been creating jewellery for and what got you started?

I
would have to say that I've always loved craft and have triend most
things, but when I found myself living alone about 5 years ago I knew
that I needed to do something to really occupy my mind and so I tried
beading. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't enough for me and I felt like I
wanted ot be bashing something but maybe that was more to do with the
divorce!? Seriously though, I enrolled on a basic metal smithing course
and never really looked back. I continued with the small workshop
instruction for almost a year and at the end I emerged with wedding
rings for my son and daughter in law. At the end of 2008, I started my
businesss SilckSilver Jewellery and I feel like I've really found a
medium that suits me.

You make jewellery from a variety of metals, which one do you favour the most and perhaps gives you more freedom to create?

I don't tend to use as much copper and brass as I used to, and my
work now is dominated by silver and anodised aluminium. Anodised
aluminium seems to suit me the most creatively as I can bring in all the
elements that really get me excited like texture and colour. I really
like challenging myself and the material by pushing it to it's limits
jus tto see what effects I can produce. My most recent work combines
heavily textured aluminium with silver elements. I think I can safely
say that I've used most things for texture!!

Is there a craft that you have always hankered after having a go at?

Over the years, I've tried my hand at most things, but I'm
quite disciplined now, because I don't really have the time to get into
anything new, HOWEVER, if money and time were not object, I would love
to try papercutting. I've seen some very intricate 3D paper cuts and
they fascinate me.

Other than your website, is there any other outlets that stock your work.